University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (UCAMC) Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (Colorado BIRCWH) Program renewal is to provide outstanding junior faculty with state-of-the-art interdisciplinary and individualized career development training that will maximize their ability to establish independent biomedical research careers in areas relevant to improving women's health. Long term, we seek to benefit the field of women's health research and ultimately, women's health, by adding a well-trained, diverse group of researchers to the work force who are equipped to answer key scientific questions about women's health and sex differences. To accomplish these goals we have created an environment that nurtures interdisciplinary collaborations in focused and interactive research areas that are essential to improving the health of women. The Colorado BIRCWH will continue to be housed in the Center for Women's Health Research (CWHR), which provides key programs both on campus and in the community that support our BIRCWH Scholars. In addition, since the 2007 award of the Colorado BIRCWH grant, UCAMC has successfully competed for a Clinical and Translational Science Award from NIH (CCTSI- Colorado Clinical Translational Science Institute). The programs offered by the CCTSI, with which the Colorado BIRCWH has a mutually beneficial affiliation, provide a rich environment for our BIRCWH Scholars in concert with the BIRCWH-specific programs and those of the CWHR. The UCAMC has a very high level of support for the BIRCWH, exemplified by strong financial support from the Dean of the School of Medicine for the BIRCWH. The Leadership Team for the Colorado BIRCWH will be headed by Judith Regensteiner, PhD who will continue as Principal Investigator/Program Director (PI/PD) with Nanette Santoro as coPI/PD. Both have extensive mentoring and research experience. We will select promising and diverse BIRCWH Scholars, as we have over the course of the current project period who will be paired with experienced mentors (and who will have mentor teams) from our multiple campuses and schools in 3 interdisciplinary and interrelated focus areas across the lifespan in which UCAMC has great strength including 1. Pregnancy: placentation, lactation, fetal/neonatal programming, 2. Immunology/Rheumatology/Inflammation and 3. Adult Health: obesity, menopause, aging, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Scholars will also have access to UCAMC's rich base of institutional research resources including interdisciplinary programs and coursework, as well as substantial core facilities. Because of the complexity of most current research, interdisciplinary research teams are the wave of the future and our BIRCWH Scholars should become extraordinarily well-positioned to be the next generation of leaders in biomedical science. Given the success of our BIRCWH Scholars in the current program we are eager to continue developing and improving our program through this renewal. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed program is relevant to career development of junior faculty in women's health research. Junior faculty who are selected for participation in the program will receive mentoring through by a primary mentor and team mentoring approach as well as access to other resources including biostatistical support, required and optional coursework and a Seminar series. The overall objective of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (UCAMC) Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (Colorado BIRCWH) Program, is to provide outstanding junior faculty with state-of-the-art interdisciplinary and individualized career development training that will maximize their ability t establish independent biomedical research careers in areas relevant to improving women's health.